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| Church of St. John Kaneo over Lake Ohrid |
To get from Berat to Lake Ohrid - Macedonia, it was a mission!
Step 1 - we got dropped of at Berat bus station via our hostel host.
Step 2 - we then got a bus from Berat to Elbasan (part way, we got dropped off outside a stadium)...
Step 3 - catch a maxi taxi to Prrenjas. This driver was one of the safest and professional drivers of the trip - onya mate.
Step 4 - catch a bus from Prrenjas, and across the Albanian/Macedonia boarder (where the bus was drug searched for halfa), and onto Struga.
Step 5 - catch a taxi from Struga to Ohrid.
By the time we'd reached Ohrid it was about 3pm, we checked into a guesthouse (apartment booked through hostelworld.com) and quickly hit the streets for some tucker and to see the sites to fill in the rest of the day. First impressions were it wasn't too dissimilar to Albania. Maybe a little cleaner. The main pedestrian street had a couple of trendy coffee shops, and a yummy vegetarian Falafel shop. Toward the Lake there were heaps of large touristy restaurants, ice cream stands and cafes. While the streets were quite, the place is defiantly skewed to the tourists - Lake Ohrid is the most popular tourist destination in Macedonia. A beautiful lake with crystal clear water!!
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| The ancient theatre of Ohrid - 200BC. Its history goes something like.... built by the Romans, and used for gladiator fights and executions of Christians by the Romans. The locals didn't like this, thus after the demise of the Roman Empire the locals buried the theatre until it was re-discovered in the 1980's. Its in pretty good knick. |
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| View from the Ohrid water front. The heritage listed buildings around the foreshore are styled very similar to the historic town of Berat. |
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| The oldest tree in Macedonia called The Chinar. This 1000yo Maple tree stands in the middle of Ohrid square/Old Bazaar you can't miss it. |
Our second day was cold and a little bit wet. We had a sleep in and it took us a while to get motivated and amongst it. When we finally got going we decided to head around the the south end of the Lake specifically to the Monastery of Saint Naum. We had heard from other travellers that it was worth look. Our original plan was to hire bikes and cycle the lake, but due to the weather our options to get us there were bus or taxi. The accommodation had provided us with some bus times to the monastery, thinking this would be the cheapest option we choose it. We walked a couple of km to the bus station, but the lack of buses meant we had to ask around a couple of offices about departure times or buses heading that way. The information we had from our accommodation wasn't quite right, but we eventually managed to get on the right bus and in the right direction. It was about a 45minute 10AUD ride to the Monastery.
We were the only ones who rolled off the mini bus, and sort of wandered through an entry gate into a well kept park on the edge of the lake. There were quite a few market stalls selling nick-nack jewellery, bags, typical tourist gear - it was really quite and only handful of people walking around which seemed weird, but due to the time of the year this made sense. We managed to find our way up to a couple of restaurants and a really small clear lake adjacent to the main lake with heaps of floating small row boats, pontoons etc. It was pretty beautiful and not what we'd expected!
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The beach and clear water!
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| Some of the gardens around the area. |
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| Stream flowing from the smaller lake into Lake Ohrid. |
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| The little restaurant rooms sitting over some pretty clear water. It was such a peaceful and beautiful area. |
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| You could take a half an hour boat ride around this mini lake for a couple of Euros- we didn't have time unfortunately. |
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| Lunch on a floating pontoon feat. its own wood heater - pretty nice setup. The waiter was a really top bloke too! Kudos mate! |
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| Finally after lunch we made it to the Sveti Naum Monastery. Circa 900ish. You have to pay a small fee to enter but is worth it I reckon. |
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| This is a reconstruction of Bronze Age stilt houses on Lake Ohrid near the village Pestani |
Instead of waiting for the bus we decided to catch a taxi back to Ohrid, the driver offered to let us pay the same fare as the bus so it was a no brainer for us. He stopped a couple of times to let us take photos, drove really safely in his 1980's Mercedes and was a great bloke to have a chat too since he spoke pretty good English. Like the Albanian people, everyone we had come across so far in Macedonia were really nice and helpful.Lake Ohrid was a pearla. Other then what is pictured here, its surrounded by mountains, little fishing villages and plenty of things to explore. There are a hand full of camping opportunities as well as plenty of other accommodation via hostels and hotels. To camp, swim, cycle and hike around this area during some sunny warm weather for 2 or 3 full days would be well worth it.
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